Superman
by blacklotus77
Summary: After Seto slips into a state of unconsciousness, Mokuba is left to take charge. But just how much can a child do?
1. Intro-Chapter 1

Superman

…

 _"We ride the line between twist and crime_

 _From the_ _angels I seem a distant cry_

 _But this is how I am and you are_

 _And it's real life."_

…

The house was quiet, even more so than usual. The manor was never a party zone, ever, but usually upon return, Mokuba would find either housekeepers or cooks or somebody bustling about. Then again, he would usually be home again around three in the afternoon, not nearly ten at night. With a weary sigh, he dropped his brown jacket right in the middle of the foyer, too tired to worry about the fact that it really belonged on the hook, and that hanging it up took the same amount of effort as just dumping it on the floor; however, the latter left him feeling much more satisfied as he trudged up two flights of stairs.

After reaching the third floor, he immediately noticed that to the left, a soft yellowish glow emanated through an open door from the first bedroom, the one that was not Mokuba's, but the elder Kaiba brother's. It was a little odd for him to be in his room already; it was only a quarter past ten, which was decidedly early for Seto to be turning in for the night. Mokuba decided to check in with him before heading to bed himself. He approached the door, and found Seto already dressed in his dark green pajamas, leaning back against his dresser as he either scribbled something into or checked off something in his black leather planner. He looked almost as exhausted as Mokuba felt, which meant that whatever the younger brother felt was actually magnified about ten times to accurately make what Seto feeling.

Mokuba gave the door a couple soft knocks to announce his presence, and Seto glanced over at the doorway, his expression softening a bit more when he noticed his little brother.

"Mokuba…how were things at the office?" he asked, dropped the planner on the dresser and walking over to sit on his bed. Mokuba headed over to sit beside him, shrugging a bit.

"Pretty normal…until one of the engineers blew a system while attempting to upgrade it. Roland told me he sent you a message to let you know I'd be later tonight."

"He did," Seto confirmed, rubbing his forehead and sliding his hand through his hair. "And I'll deal with the employee tomorrow. I'm sorry you had to deal with it tonight. I should have come in myself, but…"

Mokuba frowned when he trailed off. Not because he was angry that his brother wasn't around during that stressful time, but because he wasn't sure what had happened to make Seto blow off a work emergency and look so worn out. "But what?"

Seto shook his head. "It's nothing, I just haven't been feeling very well today. I'm sure I'll be all right tomorrow."

The younger Kaiba nodded in agreement; it was actually quite common for his brother to get headaches and _almost_ get ill after working ridiculously hard…but then he'd take some medication accordingly and get a full night's sleep, and be raring to go once again in the morning.

"I'll let you get some rest then," Mokuba said, standing up. "See you tomorrow." He leaned in to give his brother a quick hug, during which Seto assured him that he'd canceled his tutor the next morning, and that the afternoon one wouldn't be arriving until after lunch. After thanking him with another tight squeeze, Mokuba stepped back and headed to his own room, where he quickly changed into his bedclothes before collapsing onto his stomach on his bed, and instantly fell into a deep, peaceful sleep.

…

The next morning, Mokuba woke up to find he was still sprawled out on his belly. That, along with his dry mouth and slightly achy neck, confirmed that he had slept hard all through the night. After stretching a bit, a casual glance to the clock showed that it was just before a quarter to eight. He yawned contentedly at the fact that he'd gotten more than an extra hour of rest, and slid off his bed before padding back into the hallway to get some breakfast, until he stopped outside his brother's room when he heard heavy -almost labored- breathing. Frowning, he approached the slightly open door and pushed it all the way open, only to find his brother passed out on the large, overstuffed chair by his bookshelf, the very spot Mokuba (without Seto's knowledge) spent many nights in after the whole Duelist Kingdom façade.

But was Seto really sick? The younger brother went over to his side and placed the back of his hand against Seto's forehead, which seemed to be cool enough. Was he just tired and taking the day off? Mokuba reached over and gently rubbed his shoulder to wake him up, but to no avail. Seto didn't even flinch.

Panic immediately began bubbling up in his chest, and he urgently shook Seto's shoulder; however, just as he'd anticipated, Seto remained asleep. Or just unconscious. Mokuba had no idea what was happening, and he picked up the cordless telephone on the nightstand to call an ambulance.

* * *

 _Song segment at the beginning is from Shadow by The Southland._


	2. Chapter 2

Superman

…

Mokuba sat on a cold, plastic chair right outside his brother's hospital room, nervously glancing back at the closed door, hoping to either hear the door knob click or actually see it open. For hours, that hope seemed to be pointless, because the door remained firmly closed, and what seemed like hundreds of doctors had entered, but none had come out.

He felt cold, despite the fact that the hospital was in reality way too warm for the average person, and was much too acutely aware of nearly everything going on around him. He heard every word the chatty medical staff gossiped at the nurse's station, smelled the peanut butter crackers a woman sitting about twenty feet crunched on, and somehow sensed whenever a door nearby was about to open.

Still, that door was never his brother's, and Mokuba's anxiety was now growing every second. He was about to go find some water when another doctor approached his brother's room, and Mokuba couldn't help himself-he whipped around and placed himself between the door and the doctor.

" _Please_ ," he pleaded, desperate tears filling his eyes. "People keep going in there, but no one's come out to tell me what's wrong. What happened to my brother? I _need_ to know."

The doctor's mouth opened in shock for a moment, before he stepped back and gave Mokuba an earnest look. "I'm sorry, I was just paged for a consult. I'll send his primary out to speak with you right now."

Mokuba frowned. "A consult? Are you a specialist?"

"Infectious diseases," the doctor said as a couple interns appeared behind him. "We need to take some blood. I really need to enter, though, and like I said, I'll send the primary physician right out."

Reluctantly, Mokuba stepped aside, trembling with a fresh batch of anxiety. Fortunately, the specialist stayed true to his world, and within minutes, another doctor exited the room. This one was a petite young woman with wavy chestnut-colored hair and giant doe eyes. Despite her soft and gentle appearance, Mokuba immediately felt defensive when she glanced at the chart before looking at him-didn't she know what was going on? Was she a new doctor? How could he request another if she didn't know what she was doing?

The boy's rampaging train of thought was cut off when she called his name, and the world went quiet, albeit in a frightening way. He raised his hand.

"I'm Mokuba," he said, his voice shaking the slightest bit. "Why's there an infectious disease specialist seeing my brother?"

"He's taking a blood sample," the woman said gently, and ushered him to the nearest empty room. "Has he been out of the country recently?"

Mokuba shook his head furiously. "No, Seto hasn't had to go away on business for _months_...why? Is he sick?"

"That's what we're trying to figure out," she said, flipping through the chart before looking back at him. "To be perfectly honest, this isn't something I've ever seen before. His vitals are fine…his brain activity is at such a level that he should be awake. If I didn't know any better, I'd say he was a perfectly healthy young man."

Mokuba slid down against the wall, rocking himself slightly to stop the trembling. He didn't know what do say, and he knew there was nothing he could do. The spasmodic sick, flipping sensation in his stomach fired up once again, stronger than ever. All these tests and all this uncertainty was the worst kind of déjà vu-and the memory of his brother's first coma slammed into his mind like a freight train through a glass building, along with another alarming realization.

The younger Kaiba had never been anywhere nearly as skeptical as his elder counterpart. At least, not after he'd experienced fairy tale-like horrors himself; in the same vein Seto couldn't bring himself to deal with magic and destiny and inconvenient coincidences on top of everything else he had to put up with in his life, Mokuba couldn't look past them. He couldn't ignore the things he'd seen –let alone the things he'd _felt_ \- like Seto could, and he'd learned to accept that when logic and reason couldn't explain something, then there was something greater at work. And usually something that ended up with someone getting hurt.

As if he were suddenly in some sort of trance, Mokuba pushed himself back up to his feet as soon as the infectious disease specialist and his intern entourage filed out the door, along with the handful of other doctors in the room. All of them were holding tubes of his brother's blood, and although Mokuba was sure he'd never seen so much blood before in his life, he remained stoic and motionless. The sole female doctor frowned and stepped forward, as if she were trying to gain his attention.

"You can go see him," she said quietly. "We'll let you know when something comes back."

"No," Mokuba said flatly, "Can't. Need someone else." He turned around and walked down the hall towards the elevators, leaving the final remaining doctor staring bewilderedly in his wake, completely mystified about what had just happened.


End file.
